December 19. 1968 FARMINGDALE OBSERVER PAGE 3
Report From Overseas
Trip To Orphanage
Reveals Vietnam Life
Editor's NOTE: Betty Moul
is familiar to District # 22
residents and to The Observer
as two years ago, she
was brought out to Albany
Avenue School, North Massa-peqtta,
by Al Lampherc then
President of the Vietnam
Assistance Committee of
Farmingdale, Inc., to give an
illustrated talk on her work
with An Lac Orphanage in
Vietnam. This week she
made her I mirth annual trip to
Vietnam to this orphanage.
\ AC donated to her monies
in support of her work two
years age.
This year, she asked for
press credentials from The
Observer publications which
wou. jd be helpful to her in
Vietnam. In addition she
graciously consented to be
The Observer correspondent
horn Vietnam during this
vacation period. If everything
goes right, we will look
forward to her columns and
to her photographs as a
Special to The Observer.
Despite a full- time career
as Secretary to Senator
Jacob K. Javits, Betty Moul
has been actively interested
in the work of Dr. Tom
Dooley since 1958. In 1959, she
met Dr. Dooley personally
while he was a pateint at
Memorial Hospital in New
Vork City, and consequently
became a volunteer to help
the doctor answer his volu-mino
II s correspondence.
Working closely with Dr.
Dooley in this way, she soon
became influenced by his
strong desire to help the
people of Southeast Asia—
and in particular the An Lac
Orphanage in South Vietnam.
As Dr. Dooley was influenced
by the compassion of
Mine. Vli Tha Ngai in her
flight from North Vietnam to
South Vietnam with orphaned
children so was Miss Moul
influenced by the compassion
of Dr. Dooley for the peoples
of Southeast Asia.
Inspired by Dr. Dooley,
Miss Moul made her first
trip to Southeast Asia in ISP,.
In l!) 6- l she returned to Asia
again— this time to spend her
time working with the Tibetan
refugees who had fled to
India to escape the Communist
aggressions. Then to
Laos, where she spent weeks
with the members of the
medical teams in Ban Houei
Sai, close to the Burma
border— visiting the villages
along the Mekong River, and
travelling south to Pakse and
Khong Island across the
Mekong River from Cambodia
to work witfi the American
and Lao doctors and
nurses — then to Vietnam
again to work with Mme.
Ngai and the children of
An Lac Orphanage.
In i! » < » (>, she returned to
Vietnam to the Orphanage.
Here she spent five and one-half
weeks, living with a
Vietnamese family, spending
her time at the orphanage,
teaching English, caring
for the babies, assisting the
army doctor and dentist, and
Madame Ngai, in all aspects
of life in a war- torn country.
She was able to visit the
Navy Station Hospital and
Civic Action teams in Da-nang,
the Provincial Hospital
at Quang Ngai, and the
First Infantry Division in
Di- An.
Miss MouPs latest trip to
Vietnam was to fulfill a
promise to the children of
An Lac to return for Christmas.
She arrived on December
23, 1967 and returned at
the end of January, 1968, two
days prior to the Tet offensive.
During these five weeas,
she was able to again help
the children and the babies,
to recruit more help for An
Lac through the Armed
Forces, and to see again the
need for help as Dr. Dooley
saw it. She also was able
to visit the Special Forces
Camp and re- settlement villages
at Lai Thieu and the
Montagnard village at Bunar.
Upon her return to the
United States, Miss Moul
established An Lac Orphanage,
Inc. — which will enable
funds received to be sent
directly to the orphanage.
Former officers, doctors, and
civilians who had served in
Vietnam and who helped An
Lac while there, have offered
their services to this new
organization. Dr. Fred F.
Petmecky, Chairman, Texas;
LTC Patrick Tisdale,
Vice- Chairman, Kansas; Robert
Fisher, Ohio; Richard
Holdren, Washington, D. C.;
and Richard Zapsic, still in
Saigon, have carried their
desire to help the children of
An Lac to the U. S. by becoming
active members of the
Board of Directors. Along
with them are other prominent
people dedicated to
seeing that the children of
An Lac need not be foi gotten
since Dr. Tom Dooley's
death in 1961.
Miss Moul, a native of
Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania,
now President of An Lac
Orphanage, Inc., is on the
Board of Trustees of the New
Vork City Chapter of the
Thomas A. Dooley Foundation;
the Board of Advisors
of Mediship, Inc.; and on
the Board of Directors of the
American Emergency Committee
for Tibetan Refugees.
She is also an Honorary Member
of the 1st Infantry Division
in Vietnam and the
Special Forces Group at
Bunar, Vietnam.
All Miss Moul'v trips were
made on her vocation time
and with her own money.
She has been written up in
national magazines as " The
Angel of Saigon," where she
plays mother to 400 orphans.
One article, written by Barbara
Lewis, appeared in the
May 5th issue of " This Week"
magazine. The following are
excerpts from the article:
It was 10 p. m. in Saigon,
hot and noisy. Nguyen
dinh Chleu street, a fashionable
thoroughfare, was
thronged with Vietnamese
and Americans cycling back
to home or barracks to beat
the 11 o'clock curfew. But at
No. 110, the An Lac Orphan
age — a sprawling old
Town of Oyster Bay Councilman Philip
Healey ( center) discusses youth activities
with Jerry Marcus, Town of Oyster Bay
Recreation Department's Youth Director
( formerly administrative assistant with the
Farmingdale Public Schools); Neil Fruman,
Plainedge Key Club President; and Linda
Coombs of St. David's Lutheran Church.
The meeting took place last week in
Massapequa at the Marjorie Post Community
Park.
French barracks amid neat,
new homes— the only sound
was the occasional whimper
of a sleeping child. Inside the
nursery, its air acrid from too
many infants in too- crowded
quarters, only the buzz of
mosquitoes broke the silence.
The 200 foundlings, orphans,
and illegitimate war babies
were asleep.
" It would be impossible to
describe how I felt that
night," recalls Betty Moul, a
pretty, dark- haired New
Yorker in her early 30s. For
the previous four weeks,
starting just before Christmas,
she had labored long
and hard, feeding, scrubbing,
diapering and comforting
the An Lac children. She
had also become something
of a substitute mother to 200
older orphans in the An Lac
farm annex, traveling 20
miles outside Saigon to visit
them despite the threat of
terrorist activity.
And strangely, now that
she would be taking off from
Tan Son Nhut Airbase within
the hour, flying back to her
Manhattan apartment and
career- oriented world . . . " I
couldn't control myself. The
orphanage had grown to
seem like home — and the
neglected children were so
in need of help. I broke
down and cried."
An Enviable Existence
In New York
In midtown New York,
where children are as scarce
as trees, Betty moves in the
kind of company that makes
newspaper headlines. As the
private secretary to New
York's nationally prominent
Senator Jacob K. Javits, she
is tuned into such events as
literally make the world go
round. And in her personal
life, she is lucky enough to
live in a roomy, Eastside
apartment; pretty enough to
date beaus of considerable
stature in the community;
and well- salaried enough to
jet off to Rio for her annual
four- week vacation if she so
desires.
But since 1961, when Betty
was in Saigon during an
Asian trip, she has spent four
vacations — a month each
time around Christinas and
New Year's working in the
understaffed, under funded
home. On every visit, she
escalates her private " other
war" — carryitg such
" weapons" as clothes, diapers
and toys. She is never
so happy, she says, as when
she is hip- deep in Vietnamese
orphans.
Asking Betty for reasons
almost seems an impertinence.
Screwing up her face,
she will answer vaguely:
" Because we in America are
so rich; have so much to
give." Or, smiling: " Perhaps
I'm a frustrated mother."
But her reticence cannot
obscure her deeds. Each
round- trip fare to Saigon
costs her $ 1,200 — saved assiduously
through bargain-basement
shopping. And
working conditions at the
city and country orphanages
would send a labor leader
into advanced shock. She
drudges 14 hours a day, in
100- degree temperatures, refuses
the traditional afternoon
siesta and engages in
such menial labor as no
Once again this year, New
York Telephone is putting
the " gift of gab" into thousands
of Long Island Christmas
stockings.
For the sixth consecutive
year, holiday shoppers can
order gift- wrapped telephones
from their local business office
for relatives and friends
and have them under the
Vietnamese woman of means
would deign to consider.
And in New York, though
her days are full— and often,
her weekends, too — of politics,
she finds spare time to
bus down to the disheveled
offices of the Thomas A.
Dooley Foundation on lower
Fifth Avenue. There she
helps direct the stream of
money, second- hand clothing,
medicine and equipment for
An Lac, half a world away.
It was Dooley's concern
with the sick and poor of
southeast Asia that inspired
Betty's missions of mercy. In
1959, when the former Navy
doctor lay dying of cancer in
New York, Betty joined
others in helping to sustain
his medical programs— including
a hospital ship and
midwife traineeship— in the
Mekong Delta. And when
Dooley died, it was a foregone
conclusion Betty would
continue to help the project.
( To be continued)
family tree by Christmas
Eve.
A telephone company
spokesman said orders for
Christmas delivery on Long
Island must be placed by
December 18. On orders received
after this date, customers
will be given cards
informing the recipient about
telephone gifts.
AT
THE
EXCLUSIVE LONG ISLAND RESERVED SEAT ENGAGEMENT
SYOSSET THEATRE
RESERVED SEATS ON SALE AT BOX OFFICE, BY PHONE. MAIL, OR AT ANY UA THEATRE ON L. I.
JULIE ANDREWS
IN 70MM WIDE SCREEN
AND FULL
STEREOPHONIC SOUND
MATINEES DAILY - FRIDAY, DECEMBER 20th thru NEW YEARS DAY
" • " ' " * " » » • • - i , r « i/. uo TiiBWDlkl PAST n l lAfKSON AVENUE
SYOSSET THEATRE
JtRICHO TURNPIKL. EAST Ot JACKSON AVENUE
NO STATS PKWA* tXIT 16 LONG ISLAND EXP. IXIT 4i
WA 1 4810 9010 AMPLE FREE PARKING
